Intel fanbois go environ-mental

Subject: Hector, Scotland, England

If there was ever a way of p*ssing off the Scots it is to call it a region of England, being English and living in scotland I have to live with a certain amount of bigotry directed my way and saying stupid things like that just make the issue worse, yes its all very funny taking the michael out of the Americans (usually the worse culprates) and having a laugh about it but seriously, some folk up her get very upset about it, and take it out on us English folk.

D Tuffs

Subject: Really?

Are they better for the environment? Do you know the process steps required to build one. I really doubt it. Can they fit more on the same wafer? Yes. Hmm that would mean less wafers. Finally, because they are so far ahead of the others, you could run it at half speed with a sliver of a heat sink and still beat the competition.

idoanime

Subject: Barklays site does work...

After a decade of FF, the following seems to be lost knowledge ;)

http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/

There was always a function for Opera + FF that did this.

Everybody happy ?

Cheers

M

Subject: Clear case of ambiguity

McAfee throws some FUD at the GPL:

"That is all that the GPL requires. It explicitly permits that products that use GPL licenced software may be sold, subject only to the requirement that the source code to components that are GPL licenced must be distributed or made available."

This seems to be misleading. From the GPL FAQ:

"I'd like to incorporate GPL-covered software in my proprietary system. Can I do this?
You cannot incorporate GPL-covered software in a proprietary system. ..."

Your article suggests that if your product uses GPL software, only the GPL software is subjected to the GPL. Aforementioned FAQ however states that your system could suddenly be qualified as an extended version of the GPL covered software, effectively subjecting the proprietary software to a GPL license.

Your following paragraph "Merely including both proprietary and open source ..." suggests a reinforcement of the meaning of the previous paragraph, however you applied the term/verb "use" in the previous paragraph while you followed that with the term/verb "include" as if these terms are interchangeable without any effect on the license. "Using" however has completely different (licensing) semantics than "including".

Example: Can a piece of proprietary software verify a digital signature using GNUPG? It's just exec'ing 'gpg', so one would expect the proprietary software to remain proprietary. Until someone claims that the proprietary software can't function without the presence of GNUPG. Suddenly, the proprietary software is an extended version of GNUPG, in one form or another.

Aforementioned FAQ demonstrates ambiguity when considered in combination with this FAQ.

The FAQ even acknowledges the ambiguity:

"What constitutes combining two parts into one program? This is a legal question, which ultimately judges will decide. "

If the criteria were limited to the "mechanism of communication", then it would be clear when software is subjected to GPL and when not. However, the inclusion of the criterium "the semantics of the communication" is a stepping stone towards the tower of Babel. "...semantics of the communication" is a(n over) generalisation. Generalisations allow one to deduce that pigs may fly (or that quartz crystals are a form of life; The Blind Watchmaker; Richard Dawkins).

"Using", "including", "combining", they're all highly ambiguous as there's no clear separation between these terms. "Using" may be fine until someone claims you're "including" or "combining". When one piece of software "uses" another piece of software, they're functioning as a combination of software, so is this now "combining" instead of "using"?

"... keep its virus signatures database proprietary and confidential. That's data not code..."

Since when are viruses (or their respective signatures) data? A virus signature represents some of the virus code, incomplete or not. What's data and what's code depends on where you're looking from.

An interpreter makes all kinds of decisions based on the supplied code, so the code is code. If a string appears in the code, is the string data or code? If the interpreter makes a decision based on a string instance, the string constitutes a piece of code as the string contents altered the propogation of the interpreter and a variation of the string contents could alter the propogation of the interpreter in various ways (just like machine instructions). If it (the interpreter) just copies the entire string, without any regard to the invididual characters, it's data.

So virus signatures quickly become qualified as code. The signature is part of the decision making process of the virus scanner.

Note, whether a virus signature is data or code is not my opinion or even my concern. But liars (eh lawyers) will certainly contest this when push comes to shove.

Check out Oracle's license for Oracle Enterprise/Unbreakable Linux. Why do they say it's not a (linux) distribution, rather a support network?

Vijay

Subject: racist remark

Hello,

What does this mean...Edinburgh, Scotlandstown, England.

You mean Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

UK=Scotland, England, Wales, Nothern Ireland...four different countries.

Is this a dumb uneducated geography error....or an attempt at racist joke.

If its the latter prepare yourself for legal action.

Dr Christopher French from Edinburgh in Scotland.

Subject: Xbox Live congestion

PC gamers can now create Live accounts, not just Xbox 360 owners. I say Hellgate London came with a "free" Live Gold membership when you buy the PC version.

Methinks MS was not prepared to host a service to that large of an audience (PC & Xbox 360). :)

Cheers,
John

Subject: CES virgins

Any visit to Vegas that doesn't include a 10-egg omelet at the Peppermill isn't really a visit at all, now is it?

gsimanton

Subject: IE only access

Konqueror has long been able to mimic other browsers as required. No problem with this either!
Tell them o'great staff writer, junior enough to work this week when there's beer to be quaffed in Windsor (Ontario)

Techy

Subject: nvidia buying AMD

dude this theory is like the most fascinating thing that I've ever heard in my life.

I really don't think that there would be _ANY_ antitrust concerns either; I'm dead serious

Aaron

Subject: Linux handles this seemlessly

AFAIK unlike Windows, Linux handles the current time by storing UTC time and computing offsets dynamically. You only have to update one file to get the local time right (the /etc/localtime file). Usually Linux distributions provide timely updates when there are such changes and users simply have to maintain their installation up to date (we had such an update in my country recently and I didn't even have to think about it). So the very mechanism you ask for: a centralized database to use already exists for Linux (and Windows too, through Windows Update, but it's apparently too buggy to be relied on, probably needs a manual reboot...).

The problem seems only restricted to Windows, did you even have a report of a Linux system being affected that couldn't be instantly resolved with an update (without a reboot) ?

Lionel

Subject: intel-does-45nm-thang

Could you be any more negative?
I doubt it.
suck it.

Twonky